Seems like I've got a lot to say recently, 3 posts within a few weeks of each other?

Did I get hacked? Am I even me?

Either way, let's talk about something that we all use.

The Internet.

Pretty helpful right? It kind of is still, but before without all the AI bullshit being forced down our throats and the advertiser friendly algorithm, I'd say it was better.

And honestly, I think there is a point where the internet went from this "post what you want" culture to the new modern "post what you want, as long as it's advertiser friendly and can be changed with AI."

The Apocalypse isn't as cool as Fallout.

It was the 2016 Adpocalypse, up to that point, there hasn't been much precedent on that scale of Advertisers pulling out of Youtube or any website for that matter.

When that took place, a lot changed, Demonetization became a thing and now you couldn't curse or say what you want, it had to be filtered or else it'd be demonetized or Age Restricted. Everyone got censored.

That's when I think the internet changed, the adpocalypse showed Advertisers that they can force these sites to conform to their rules without much pushback.

Leading them to start pushing other websites to follow their demands, it's how we now have that stupid "unalive" "grape" "essay" tiktok speak. I'm not blaming the users, I'm all for finding a way to convey the message.

The fact that users have to censor themselves and use different words for serious topics, is quite literally horrible. It's literally 1984 with "double plus ungood".

These companies deflect the criticism with "It's to make the platform safer and ensure all can enjoy".

When in reality, the only people that are going to be enjoying and feeling safer cause of these rules are the Advertisers.

The Big Brother Ac- I mean, "Online Safety Act"

Now with the Online Safety Act being introduced by the parasites at the UK Government, sites now have to put additional filters. 

If you're below 18, now you can't view NSFW. Which is a good thing, but the issue is that companies are using AI to detect if you're below 18.

Sometimes this results in false positives where the User is now blocked from seeing any content rated "too mature" and now has to either do 1 of 3 things.

  1. Provide a selfie of themselves to be passed through AI.
    This is pretty bad, what if the AI can't detect if the selfie is a person? What if this person is a body modder, has a ton of facial tattoos or not even a real person and instead is just a screenshot of some video game character?

  2. Provide your Driver's License or Government ID
    This is extremely idiotic now, as the past year has shown, these companies cannot be trusted with your Driver's License/ID.

    There have been multiple data breaches of unsecured databases that contain Driver's Licenses and Government IDs of multiple users.

    Don't you remember the days where you were told not to post pictures, information or legal documents of yourself? I sure do.

  3. Create a new account.

Now I got hit by this with my personal g-mail account I've had for nearly 10 years.
Google wanted me to verify with an ID, Selfie, Credit Card or Using the sites I'm registered to.

I did the latter, didn't go well and just stopped.
They were so desperate to get something, they sent an email to me earlier today that I should give them proof I'm above 18.

I don't think they realize I really do not care about verifying if I'm 18 or not for a fucking email? Do you know how genuinely stupid it sounds to say "Oh I verified I was above 18 by giving Google a selfie of myself, a photo of my ID and my credit card info for my email", extremely stupid. In-fact, saying it outloud right now makes it sound like a scam.

And all of this cause the UK Government does not like people using the internet as it was meant to be used, express themselves.

There have been multiple cases of the UK Law Enforcement going after people for posting memes or messages they didn't like.

This act allows them to do this more, it's basically one step closer to a dictatorship.
And it's bad for everyone else, cause it now sets a precedent for Governments being able to link accounts to people.

So what can we do?

This issue is simply just too big for most of us to try to find a solution to.

The UK is, well the UK, we can't exactly protest or complain to the government when we're in the US. Plus we tried that once and it was an entire thing.

But what we can do is limit your use of social media and find smaller social sites that let you speak or just create your own site like me. (Trust me, it's not as hard as it sounds.)

Examples/Small Communities:

What now?

Well, to summarize this as if I'm writing an essay.

2016 Adpocalypse was the turning point for the Internet as Advertisers realized their power over companies and pushing them to release features that limits and censor User's expressions. It has also lead to the "Online Safety" Act being implemented, furthering the effects and being pretty bad for a ton of people. As well as TikTok Speak and AI being used to flag accounts as minors.

And before I leave, while things do seem bad and they kind of are, keep pushing forward. The companies and governments win if you give up, they're hoping that you do and become apathetic, so they can implement more bullshit.

If you keep fighting, then it becomes harder for them to implement dumb acts.
And I'm not saying to go to your local town government and burn the town hall, I am explicity telling you not to do that.

Sign petitions, Call your Senators, Attend Protests (while making sure you're safe.).

Simply just raising awareness does nothing, all you're doing is yelling to others that the ocean is made out of water.

I'll step off the soapbox and back into my cave. And with that,

Thank you for reading.